Kenton Harper

Kenton Harper (1801-25 December 1867) was a Virginia Democratic politician and a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War.

Biography
Kenton Harper was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1801, and he worked as a printer before moving to Staunton, Virginia in 1823 and publishing the Republican Farmer newspaper until 1849. He served in the Houes of Delegates from 1836 to 1837 before serving as Mayor of Staunton, and he served as a US Army colonel durig the Mexican-American War, becoming Governor of Parras in Coahuila. In 1861, he chose to become a Confederate States Army colonel when the American Civil War broke out, and he commanded a regiment in the Stonewall Brigade. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run, but he resigned on 11 September 1861 after Stonewall Jackson refused to allow him to visit his dying wife. Harper went on to serve in the House of Delegates from 1862 to 1864, and he was reappointed a reserve colonel during the Valley Campaigns of 1864, suffering defeat at the Battle of Piedmont in June 1864 and at the Battle of Waynesboro in March 1865. He returned to Staunton after the war, and he died of pneumonia in 1867.